A roundup of developments in corporate social responsibility and sustainability from the bio/pharmaceutical industry, its suppliers, and other public and private organizations.

Representatives from the United Nations, governments, businesses, and nonprofit groups met in Cancún, Mexico, to move forward international efforts for meeting climate-change goals.

The Global Health Progress collaboration works to improve healthcare delivery in the developing world.

The European Commission and Medicines Agency seem to be moving in advance of their ICH partners to update standards.

Expert and implementation working groups harmonize more guidelines and move Q11 forward.

Capable of great works, pharma as a whole still yields to the lesser angels of its nature.

AstraZeneca and Abbott End Program; PhRMA Elects New Members; and More.

Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India) has entered into a technology transfer, manufacturing, and marketing agreement with R-Pharm (Moscow), a Russian pharmaceutical company.

After five years of discussions, the US Food and Drug Administration is joining the Pharmaceutical Inspection Convention (PIC) and the Pharmaceutical Inspection Cooperation Scheme (PIC Scheme), known together as PIC/S.

The European Medicines Agency launched on December 20, 2010, a public registry about small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) that includes information about SME-registered companies.

Novartis (Basel) signed a memorandum of understanding with the City of St. Petersburg, Russia, confirming its intent to build a new full-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg.

Pfizer Recalls One Lipitor Lot; Sanofi Aventis Names Head of R&D; and More.

ICH Unveils New Website and Logo

A US Food and Drug Administration inspection completed on Dec. 9, 2010 revealed persistent deficiencies at McNeil Consumer Healthcare's Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, facility.

Thermo Fisher to Acquire Dionex; Former SOCMA CEO Joe Acker Dies; and More.

Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, IL), B. Braun Medical (Bethlehem, PA), and Roxane Laboratories, a subsidiary of Boehringer Ingelheim (Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany), agreed to pay the United States $421 million to settle False Claims Act allegations.

Equipment and Processing Report talked to Jonathan Seville, dean of the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick, to find out how positron-emission particle tracking could help pharmaceutical manufacturers gain process understanding.

Pfizer (New York) appointed Ian C. Read, currently head of the company's global biopharmaceutical operations, as president, chief executive officer, and director. He succeeds Jeffrey B. Kindler, who retired from the company.

Company and People Notes: GlaxoSmithKline acquires Nanjing MeiRui Pharma; Cephalon's CEO to remain on medical leave; and more.

Supportive public policy is needed in order for innovation to flourish.

Tiered pricing is used throughout industry to help increase affordability and access to drugs in the developing world.

World AIDS Day 2010 reminds us that prevention and hope can help fight the disease.

Sometimes doing what you think is right ends up being completely and utterly wrong.

EMA Publishes New Transparency Policy, Releases Guideline for Biosimilar mAbs.

IPEC extends its reach to Brazil and Argentina in an effort to harmonize excipient best practices.

GlaxoSmithKline (GKS, London) outlined a plan to invest EUR 500 million ($649 million) in research and development (R&D) and related manufacturing in the United Kingdom conditioned on the successful implementation of a so-called "patent box" measure by the UK government.

A roundup of developments in corporate social responsibility and sustainability from the bio/pharmaceutical industry, its suppliers, and other public and private organizations.

So 2010 is nearly over and what a year it's been for our industry.